Families demand removal of real Itaewon footage used in Call of Duty
Relatives say short archival clips showing a resuscitation were used in Modern Warfare 4; Activision confirmed using news footage but gave no removal pledge.
Families of victims from the Itaewon crowd crush say short pieces of real news footage showing injured civilians were used inside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and they are demanding the material be removed. Publisher Activision has acknowledged using journalistic footage but has not said whether it will delete or alter the scenes.
Forensic checks and relatives' appeals
According to a review cited by South Korean campaigners, roughly three seconds of archival video appear in a cinematic sequence that depicts the aftermath of a fictional North Korean invasion; the clip shows a person being resuscitated on the street. A forensic video analyst, Hwang Min‑gu, evaluated the material and concluded the images match details from the real‑world footage.
In a joint statement issued on October 28, a coalition of families and civic groups asked Activision to remove the clips. "Using such an event as material for a game meant for entertainment is completely inappropriate and insensitive," the statement said.
Relatives and rescuers continue to suffer trauma from the 2022 disaster, the families' statement added, and they warned that offensive online commentary linking the in‑game scenario to the real victims has been spreading on the internet.
Activision told campaigners that it "had absolutely no intention of referring to any real tragic event, including the tragedy in Itaewon, or of treating it lightly." The publisher has not publicly confirmed plans to change the scenes.
A national players' association asked the studio for an explanation and an apology and requested that the footage be replaced via a game update, while also warning against the episode being used to justify broad censorship of creative content.
The families made the demand one day before the fourth anniversary of the Itaewon crowd crush. On October 29, 2022, more than 150 people died after a crush in a narrow street in the Seoul neighbourhood known for its nightlife during Halloween celebrations.
Photo: press material from the event
